If you are working through D'Ooge's book, how far have you progressed? <br /><br />I myself am up to lesson XXV, the future active indicative of rego and audio, which means that I have finished about a quarter of the book.<br /><br />Also, I'm wondering how D'Ooge's work compares to a typical university course. Does the book correspond to a month, a semester, a year, or can such comparisons not be made?

From what I have seen skimming through D'Ooge, it covers all of the basic grammar that students learn as the foundation for Latin. There really is nothing major that D'Ooge (and hopefully any beginner's Latin text) will not cover. I would say it is equivalent to about 2 college semesters, although different teachers pursue different paces. After that, it's just working on reading ability and minor grammatical usages.<br /><br />I don't use it myself, but it certainly appears to be a competent tool.

<br />When I was working through BLD, I only made it as far as Lesson XXII, page 60. I think I left of with exercise #146. In retrospect, I think BLD is harder to use. But my only basis is comparing BLD to M&F. I find M&F a much easier book to use. Ok, you can all call me a wimp for choosing an easier book to learn Latin from. ::)<br /><br />

On the contrary Marie! Isn't M&F an intensive course? From the example sentences I have seen from that book, while the concepts are not any more difficult than any text, the sentences actually make me stop and think a lot of the time. I think the people who designed that book have a better idea of good prose composition than most textbook writers.

<br />Well, yes, the title does say "Intensive Course", but for some reason I find their approach much easier. I guess their format speaks to me better so I find it more palatable. Everyone learns best from different approaches. M&D speaks best to me, while Wheelock speaks best to Klewlis, while BLD speaks best to Episcopus, etc. It's kinda like how managers have to use different approaches to manage their staff because each employee reacts best to a different style.<br /><br />Both BLD & M&F have a lot of exercises for practice. Actually, I think BLD has more practice exercises, though I haven't actually sat down to count them.<br /><br />I do, however, prefer the sentences in M&F as they seem like more "normal" or more "realistic" sentences (for lack of a better description), the sentences even seem more "natural". It seems so obvious when you look at the Dialogues (the Boys Sextus and marcus) or short "stories" (Niobe & her Children) in BLD vs. the short "stories" (Aeneas) in M&F.<br /><br />

Unfortunately, I'm only on Lesson 11. :-[ However, should some miracle plop three or four days of completely uninterrupted time in my lap, so that I suddenly find myself flying through Latin, I'll let you know! (If that ever were to happen, I'd let everybody know! ;D)

Check the last 25 pages of Dr. D'Ooge's book; exercises come thick and fast along with constant prose - each typically every other page!! <br /><br />I'm banging my hand on the table but they still elected that bishop :-\

a semester is half of a school year. many schools in north america work on a semester system... so you take 4-6 classes in the first semester and 4-6 in the second semester. as far as I know, wheelock is considered approximately one full year of college work, so two semesters.

[quote author=Episcopus link=board=3;threadid=739;start=0#7274 date=1064869852]<br />What the hell is a semester?[/quote]<br /><br />Beniss said that D'Ooge covers two college semesters. Thats basically one college year; many colleges have two semesters per year.<br /><br />I went to a college that was on the quarter system, so there are three quarters in one college year. So in my case, I would have said that D'Ooge covers three quarters. <br /><br />

[quote author=mariek link=board=3;threadid=739;start=0#7288 date=1064875052]<br />[quote author=Episcopus link=board=3;threadid=739;start=0#7274 date=1064869852]<br />What the hell is a semester?[/quote]<br /><br />Beniss said that D'Ooge covers two college semesters. Thats basically one college year; many colleges have two semesters per year.<br /><br />I went to a college that was on the quarter system, so there are three quarters in one college year. So in my case, I would have said that D'Ooge covers three quarters. <br /><br /><br />[/quote]<br />That's not three quarters - it's three thirds! Or was another quarter given to holidays?<br /><br />Here in Australia we use the semester system for the most part.

D'Ooge is probably the amount of material you would cover in 2 or 2½ semesters, but because of its intensive setup, it would probably take a little longer. There are two ways of doing it: you can take longer to absorb the condensed information... or you can keep up with it and go really quickly (and probably forget a ton of stuff along the way).

[quote author=tdominus link=board=3;threadid=739;start=0#7341 date=1064898325]<br />That's not three quarters - it's three thirds! Or was another quarter given to holidays? [/quote]<br /><br />You're funny. I guess you can say the 4th quarter covers the summer months. The good thing about the quarter system is that any class you're not too keen on will be over in 10 weeks. However on the flip side, everything had to be covered in a short amount of time, meaning the quarter was very intense. <br /><br />

[quote author=benissimus link=board=3;threadid=739;start=0#7342 date=1064898656]<br /> There are two ways of doing it: you can take longer to absorb the condensed information... or you can keep up with it and go really quickly (and probably forget a ton of stuff along the way).<br />[/quote]<br /><br />Agreed verily!<br /><br />Yet I have a target of December...so sometimes I do go to fast and forget some... <br /><br />Plus I haven't the time anymore to look up the new words in the stories now. <br /><br />

If you read Latin often enough for long enough, it won't matter if you don't look up some of the words-you'll start being able to understand them in context. That's how it worked for me with English, and how it's been working for French.

[quote author=Keesa link=board=3;threadid=739;start=0#7428 date=1064960376]<br />If you read Latin often enough for long enough, it won't matter if you don't look up some of the words-you'll start being able to understand them in context. That's how it worked for me with English, and how it's been working for French. <br />[/quote]<br /><br />That may work for some books.<br /><br />It was definitely more of a challenge for me when I was reading a SciFi book in French ... all those neologisms that you can't lookup in the dictionary!<br /><br />